Apple ad man quits

Chiat Day's creative director for the Apple account, Ken Segall has left the company, reports Adweek. It is believed that he is leaving to take a position with another major advertising firm.

The Apple account remains under the control of Lee Clow, but former group account director James Vincent has been promoted to worldwide account director for the client. Sean Hardwick, US director, is reportedly to take over the Apple Europe account in January.

The loss of its creative director could presage a new direction for Apple's advertising strategy. This could dovetail nicely with the full launch of Apple's new-look, new-style operating system, Mac OS X. The change also comes shortly after the resignation announcement of Apple's senior vice president of worldwide sales, Mitch Mandich.

Under Segall, Apple's advertising has won prizes for the company. However, despite the signal success of iMac, Apple still has a great deal of space to fill before cynical observers agree that it has broken out of niche-market status.